'Morsi underlines Iran's isolation'

The Egyptian president's criticism of the Assad regime underlines Iran's international isolation, despite its hopes that the non-aligned summit in Tehran would be a diplomatic triumph, our colleague Simon Tisdall writes.

They [the Iranians] were forced to listen as Morsi, a Muslim Brother, an Arab, and lifelong critic of western policy in the Middle East, thumped out an uncompromising speech that could have come straight from Hillary Clinton's playbook ...

Morsi said the world had a "moral duty" to back the Syrian opposition, whom he provocatively likened to the Palestinians, in their struggle "against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy". Forceful intervention (he did not propose military action) was essential to prevent a further descent into civil war and sectarianism, he said. The fractured Syrian opposition must unite under one banner.

Morsi's speech all but completed Iran's isolation. That Russia continues to block effective UN action cannot disguise the fact that among all the – mostly Arab – countries of the region, non-Arab Iran is out on a limb over Syria, just as it is over its suspect nuclear programme ...

Morsi's intervention will encourage Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in their active support for the Syrian uprising. It may, in time, foster an increasingly interventionist, united Arab front against Bashar al-Assad's regime, as happened in Libya after the Arab League turned against Muammar Gaddafi. Given the myriad pre-existing tensions between the Sunni Muslim Gulf states and predominantly Shia Muslim Iran, the development of such a front would logically serve to further restrain Tehran's ambitions.

But regarding an end to the Syrian slaughter and a peaceful transfer of power, Morsi's contribution in Tehran must be kept in perspective.

In terms of changing facts on the ground, or substantively altering the egregiously negative Syrian dynamic, it may have scant impact.

Morsi's plan for a contact group comprising Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran was already opposed by the US and others. After his uncompromising Tehran performance, it will go precisely nowhere.

4.29pm BST

Iraq's Syria proposal

At the non-aligned summit in Tehran, Iraq is to submit its own plan to stop the violence in Syria, AFP reports.

It says it calls for:

an agreement from all parties to end violence;

an end to external interference;

roundtable talks under Arab League supervision;

formation of an interim unity government including "all components of the Syrian people with all factions agreeing upon who heads the government"; and

polls to be held under the auspices of a newly-created independent election commission.

Jordan deports refugees

Jordan appears to have carried out its threat to deport refugees back to Syria after about 200 people at the Za'atari camp went on the rampage late on Tuesday to protest about conditions there. Wissam Tarif, from Avaaz tweeted:

Shelling in Kafr Batna

Our colleague Mona Mahmood has interviewed Anass al-Demashiqi, a resident of Kafr Batna, in Damascus suburbs, via Skype. He told her that shelling is ongoing and they fear that troops will storm the district.

Shooting and shelling in Kafr Batna did not stop till now. The Syrian regime is attacking us with mortars and helicopters. Kafr Batna is a violent area and ،only 5 km from the centre of Damascus. More than 20,000 people live here, mortars are coming from the military barracks surrounding our area.

Today there are lot of soldiers and armoured vehicles are massing up at the entrance to Kafr Batna. They might storm the district at any moment. Most of the people here had already left, the example of Daraya is so scary. Some others are hiding in shelters at the mosques.

No one can escape the revenge of the regime whether he is in the opposition or not. We did not have any army or checkpoints but the heavy shooting targeting our area is causing the killing of many people. As the Syrian army started to shoot the area, some of them begin to raid the houses, most of the shells are falling on residential areas.

An hour ago a shell fell on a house (see video below) but thank God the family had just left it to stay in a mosque. A few people who live close to the house were wounded.

Yesterday, a shell fell on a house and killed three people, another fell on a family of five's house and killed them all. Two young men Khalid Bedreldien and Marwan al-Daqaq were detained in Kafr Batna and then executed. Most of the people here have joined the revolution either after defecting from the army or after they lost a member of their family.

All the bakeries are shut here. For the last three months we did not have a piece of wheat. The FSA used to secure food supplies for Kafr Batna. They used to buy food from outside and smuggle it to the area, but now, under such heavy shooting, they can't do anything. All the FSA now are outside.

The regime is not allowing any food to get inside. If you want to bring food into the area you are acting like a smuggler. We do not have any hospital to go to for treatment, all the wounded are treated at home - either they recover or they die.

We are under a tight siege from all directions for eight months now., we can not go out at all. If I want to go down, the soldiers will stop me and check my ID, if they find out I'm from Kafr Batna they will detain me at once. All the shops now are almost empty. They used to get goods from outside Damascus, now they can't move and no one can get inside the district.

I live with another five members of my family. We decided to stay at home and not to leave whatever the situation is. My mother and sisters are helping in providing medical treatment to the wounded.

Enforced disappearances in Syria

Enforced disappearances – the practice by states or governments to detain (or worse) citizens and keep their families in the dark about their fate – have been a human rights problem in Syria for decades. However, Syrian authorities’ heavy handed response to the popular uprising, characterized by an utter disregard for human rights, has led to a dramatic rise in cases of enforced disappearance. This issue and its long-standing impact on families and loved ones, are widely underreported.

Much of the Syrian government’s strategy relies on us simply forgetting about political detainees. In the case of enforced disappearances, this strategy is taken to next level: putting political opponents and activists completely outside the law, and very literally, outside of our memories. Victims are disappeared without a trace – with governments careful not to leave behind any trail of official records or information, deepening families’ despair and banking on to us forget.

One of the cases it highlights is that of Anas al-Shogre, a student and pro-reform activist in Banias. It says:

He was detained more than 15 months ago, during the night of 14 May 2011. Sources told his family that he was initially held at the Military Security branch in the city of Tartous, south of Banias, before being transferred to the state security branch in Damascus. His family visited the facility in Tartous and staff confirmed that he was being held at a security branch, but refused to provide further details. Released detainees say that at the military security branch, they heard him scream: “I don’t want to live, let me die”, raising fears that he was being tortured. He was reportedly last seen in October 2011.

3.02pm BST

Syrian objections to Morsi's speech

The Syrian government news agency has confirmed that foreign minister Walid al-Moallem did indeed walk out of the non-aligned summit in protest at President Morsi's speech – and not just because he wanted to talk to journalists (see earlier report).

According to the agency, Moallem had three objections to the Egyptian president's speech:

1. It "constituted a breach of the conventions of the summit's presidency"

2. It was "an interference in Syria's internal affairs"

3. It instigated "continuing the shedding of Syrian blood"

2.57pm BST

Footage of dead pilot

A video has been posted (WARNING: graphic) purporting to be of the - dead - pilot from the jet reportedly shot down in Idlib today.

A man speaking to the camera says:

This is a pilot from the Alawite Shabiha (pro-Assad militia). With the help of God we were able to shoot his plane.

He said the brigade that carried out the operation was the Zawiya mountain martyrs brigade, part of the Syria martyrs brigade.

A female activist in Damascus

Our colleague Mona Mahmood has been speaking via Skype with a 30-year-old female activist in Damascus who gave her name as Rima Sami.

A month ago, our district was under a heavy military campaign so we decided to leave. After few days when the situation got bit calmer, my father decided to go back to bring out a few birds we had [as pets] at home but also to help our neighbour get out of the district.

As my father was reaching the house, a sniper shot him in his head. No one was able to help him and he died. Our neighbour who was supposed to come with my father saw him shot but he could not help as the shooting was so heavy. It was only after five days that my brother was able to go to pick up my father to bury him.

I have given up my job [as an Arabic teacher] to work for the revolution. I could not stand how was the regime treating our people brutally and how we lost our dignity.

There are a lot of Syrian women working for the revolution, some of them work in media, others are documenting the names of the detainees and martyrs and helping people with food.

When the protests were peaceful, young girls used to provide flags and banners and even presents for the martyrs' families. Now, they work more to help people, some women cook food for the FSA.

I know women who joined nursing courses to help the wounded. We have a large number of wounded and a shortage in medical staff. Also, some women are helping men to distribute leaflets to encourage people to join the revolution.

My husband is involved in a committee which collects money to distribute among the people who are in need. They make list in every neighbourhood to find out who has had his house destroyed, who has martyrs, detainees or missing people ... women who lost their men.

In Ramadan they distributed food in addition to money. Most of the donations come from Syrians who are in the exile, some comes from Europe and the Gulf. Syrian businessmen are also donating money to help the people.

There is a great shortage in food in Damascus. Most of the food used to come to the capital from the countryside. Now, the countryside is under a siege and constant shelling. Many factories are not working now.

Some food supplies used to come from Aleppo, but no more. Wheat used to come from Deir Ezzour but you know the situation there now, in addition to the checkpoints that are suffocating the city. Fuels prices are so high now.

You can get food in the quieter areas of Damascus. You need to queue for a long time to get bread or fuel.

I'm not member of FSA but in the end the FSA are our people. All the massacres the regime are committing won't stop us or our protesting.

Despite all the fears I live with now, I love my life more than before. It has become more meaningful. Now, we have something to live for and achieve.

Press TV gives no details of what Morsi actually said to Ahmadinejad (or vice versa). This appears to be in line with the Iranian press ignoring Morsi's criticism of Assad. It has instead presented the Egyptian president's visit, for the non-aligned summit, as a diplomatic triumph, as Morsi is the first Egyptian leader to set foot in Iran for decades.

1.55pm BST

Security forces casualties 'top 8,000'

More than 8,000 members of the Syrian security forces have been killed the uprising broke out in March last year, the director of the Tishrin military hospital in Damascus said today.

The Lebanese Daily Star (via AFP) quotes him as saying: "Every day, we receive an average of 15 to 20 bodies of soldiers and members of security forces, with the numbers increasing since the beginning of the year."

1.46pm BST

Indian PM calls for a stand on Syria

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has called on the Non-Aligned Movement to take a stand over Syria based on "universally accepted principles", the Press Trust of India reports:

Voicing India's opposition to "external intervention" in Syria, Singh ... made a pointed reference to the situation in the West Asian region, particularly Syria, currently afflicted by a civil war between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels.

"The West Asian and North African region is undergoing profound change. As the world's largest democracy, India supports popular aspirations for a democratic and pluralistic order. Nevertheless, such transformations cannot be prompted by external intervention, which exacerbate the suffering of ordinary citizens.

"The deteriorating situation in Syria is a matter of particular concern. Our movement should take a stand on the issue in keeping with universally accepted principles," he said while urging all parties to recommit themselves to resolving the crisis peacefully through a Syrian-led inclusive political process that can meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrian citizens.

Iranian media ignore Morsi's attack on Assad

Unsurprisingly, President Morsi's attack on the Syrian regime during his visit to Tehran has not hit the headlines in Iran. Our colleague Saeed Kamali Dehghan writes:

Mohamed Morsi’s comments on Syria dominated the news coming out of Tehran’s Non-Aligned Movement summit today but Iran’s state-run media, which devoted a significant coverage to his visit as the first Egyptian president to go to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, almost censored his criticism of the Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The semi-official Fars news agency instead focused on Morsi’s call for recognition of the Palestinian state and the state-run Irna news agency ran an article saying that Egyptian public opinion approved of his visit to the Iranian capital.

Iran has attempted to seize upon Morsi’s visit and depict hosting the Non-Aligned Movement as a diplomatic triumph but the Egyptian president was partly obliged to go to Iran because his country had to pass the presidency of the group to Iran. Cairo-Tehran have not upgraded their diplomatic relations which is still not in an ambassadorial level despite Morsi’s visit to Tehran.

1.15pm BST

Call to Syrian parliament

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has accused the Syrian parliament of failing "to fulfil its legal responsibility to protect the Syrian people and urgently take a lead in ending the conflict in the country".

In a statement calling on the parliament to hold the government to account, the Swiss-based organisation said:

Since the conflict between government and anti-government forces began in 2011, becoming bloodier as it has endured, the Syrian parliament has been totally absent from the political stage and unacceptably silent on events as they have unfolded.

Although elected in May this year in elections boycotted by all the major opposition parties and by a fraction of eligible voters, the parliament is nevertheless obligated to protect all the citizens in the country irrespective of their political allegiances.

The IPU's executive committee says the question of suspending Syria's membership will be presented to its next general assembly in October.

1.04pm BST

'False flag plot'

The source told Syrian news channel Addounia that a Saudi company had fitted 1,400 ambulance vehicles with anti-gas & anti-chemical filtering systems at a cost of $97,000 dollars each, in preparation for a chemical weapons attack carried out by FSA rebels using mortar rounds. A further 400 vehicles have been prepared as troop carriers.

The attack, which will involve the use of white phosphorus, sarin and mustard gas, will be launched on a heavily populated town near the Syria/Jordan border, possibly Deraa, after which the vehicles will pour in under the cover of humanitarian aid.

The ambulances, emblazoned with the slogan “Syrian People’s Relief”, will operate under the guise of an aid mission to help the victims of the chemical weapons attack, but in reality are nothing short of armored personnel carriers.

Travelling from Riyadh to the Jordanian capital Ammam [sic] before entering Syria, the vehicles will be used to create a buffer zone that will lead to a Nato military intervention under the pretext of punishing Assad’s regime for the atrocity, the source claims.

12.55pm BST

Arab Spring 'is a US strategy for control'

Use of the term "Arab Spring" to describe the uprisings in Arab countries "was not simply an arbitrary or even seasonal choice of nomenclature, but rather a US strategy of controlling their aims and goals," Joseph Massad writes in an article for al-Jazeera's website.

Massad, who teaches modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York, says the term "Arab Spring" was coined by the American journal Foreign Policy.

12.43pm BST

Turkish hostility to refugees

Hostility to Syrian refugees is rising in Turkish border towns, where there are fears of sectarian tensions - there are a number of Alawites in these areas - spreading across the border, the Daily Beast reports.

Politicians from the Turkish opposition have demonized the refugees—one recently claimed Turkey is training terrorists in the camps—and raised the alarm about coming sectarian unrest. The Turkish press, meanwhile, has been filled with accounts from Hatay residents who say they no longer want the Syrians in town. Syrians have been accused of everything from jumping cabs and restaurant bills to making unwanted advances on Turkish women and sowing Islamic extremism. Rumors of big anti-Syrian protests, meanwhile, have become a constant in Antakya of late ...

Some well-known Syrian activists in Antakya say they were summoned to a meeting with local government officials to address the refugee issue Monday night. According to the activists, the officials suggested that all Syrians should leave Antakya and Hatay—either for the refugee camps, or to head deeper into Turkey, away from the border. The officials, they say, painted this as a move for the Syrians’ own good—in the camps they could receive more Turkish support. But the Syrians reacted with defiance. “We understood the message,” says Amin Ahmed Abid, a schoolteacher and activist from the Syrian city of Latakia. “They want to move all Syrian people away from Hatay.”

My main work is to convince the Alawites that they do not have to commit suicide along with the regime ...Today, many Alawites are not happy with what’s happening on the ground, but where is the safe zone for them? Alawites need to know that there’s a strong side that will guarantee their safety if they defect.

Rice says arm Syrian opposition

The United States needs to help rally the regional powers to put together a political framework for a post-Assad regime and then to help vet and arm the opposition so that somebody can stop the slaughter of the Syrian people ...When people say if you arm the opposition it might get worse - look at what Assad is doing ...I would hope that some of that vetting has been done ...then in that case arm the opposition so that they can resist to the terror of the Assad regime, so that they can resist the Iranian interference in the affairs of the Syrian people so that we can do something about the terrible spillover that is starting to happen to Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. I think the United States should be participating in the arming of these rebels.

She claimed that the US brings "a more balanced approach to the region".

There are regional agendas by the outside powers that are essentially confessional agendas, Sunnis arming Sunnis, Shias arming Shias. The US and Iraq bring a more balanced approach to the agenda.

Rice has been touted as a possible member of a future Mitt Romney administration, should he beat Barack Obama in the US presidential election, but she said she had no interest in serving again.

10.54am BST

'No Syrian plane' shot down, says military source

A Syrian military source says "no Syrian warplane, at any rate, has been downed in idlib countryside".

Bakery attacks 'are war crimes'

Syrian government forces have dropped bombs and fired artillery at or near at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo province over the past three weeks, killing and maiming scores of civilians who were waiting for bread, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attacks are at least recklessly indiscriminate and the pattern and number of attacks suggest that government forces have been targeting civilians, Human Rights Watch said. Both reckless indiscriminate attacks and deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes.

One attack in the city of Aleppo on 16 August 2012, killed up to 60 people and wounded more than 70. Another attack in the city on 21 August killed at least 23 people and wounded 30.

“Day after day, Aleppo residents line up to get bread for their families, and instead get shrapnel piercing their bodies from government bombs and shells,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch who has just returned from Aleppo. “Ten bakery attacks is not random – they show no care for civilians and strongly indicate an attempt to target them.”

In a statement on its Facebook page, the LCC describes Fisk as a a "world-famous journalist known for his balanced opinion pieces and ground-breaking reports especially from the Middle East". It also compliments him for bringing the 1982 Hama massacre to the world's attention. But it goes on to say that it was "astonished" by his report from Daraya. It says:

One major concern that would invalidate any statement taken from the victims is the presence of army personnel as admitted by Mr Fisk himself. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Syrian regime would know the degree of intimidation this would incur in the hearts and minds of witnesses. The army does not need to spoon-feed the statements to the witnesses as fear is more than enough to make them repeat the narrative propagated by the government about armed militias and radical Islamists.

The LCC, which collates reports of violence by the regime in Syria based on a network of on-the-ground contacts, also claims to have looked into the specific cases that Fisk mentioned and says "the following corrections need to be made".

1- The story of Hamdi Khreitem’s parents. The witness must have been too intimidated to identify his parents’ killers. Our reliable sources from the field hospital of Daraya confirm that both of them were targeted by a sniper (from the Assad army of course).

2- The story of Khaled Yahya Zukari. The witness was actually in a car with his brother and their wives and children. They were shot at by government forces and his wife and daughter (Leen) were hit. The baby girl’s head was almost split in half and a bullet penetrated the mother’s chest. The mother became hysterical as a result of the shock. Later she died as the field hospital had to be evacuated prior to an army raid. The Assad army told the people that the FSA raped and killed the woman.

Updated at 10.23am BST

10.08am BST

Pilot escapes

A screen shot posted on Twitter is said to show a Syrian pilot parachuting to earth after his fighter jet was hit in Idlib province today.

Refugee camp "chronically underfunded"

Save the Children has echoed concerns by the UN refugee agency about the increase in the numbers of refugees arriving at the Za'atri camp in northern Jordan. UNHCR said on Tuesday that 10,200 people had arrived in the previous week heralding what could be a bigger mass movement.

Save the Children warned today that the Za'atri camp is "chronically underfunded". It described conditions as already appalling and in danger of deteriorating.

Families have fled the conflict in Syria, but instead of reaching safety in Jordan, they are arriving to find there is food of poor quality and limited general services. More than half of the refugees are children, and conditions in the camp are appalling.

Until funding is made available to help Syrian refugees, the situation will only deteriorate as more families arrive. The international community must step up and help these desperate families by making funding urgently available.

9.45am BST

Fighter jet 'shot down' in Idlib

A Tweet from the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel says the FSA has shot down a fighter jet in Idlib.

The 47th says there is video footage of the ejected pilot:

♕The 47th♕ (@THE_47th)

NEWS REPORTS OF DOWNED MIG ARE NOW BEING CONFIRMED WITH A VIDEO (VID DOESN'T SHOW JET, ONLY EJECTED PILOT PARACHUTING DOWN).

More from Morsi

Here are some more quotes from the Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Iran, via al-Jazeera. He said:

Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty as it is a political and strategic necessity.

We all have to announce our full solidarity with the struggle of those seeking freedom and justice in Syria, and translate this sympathy into a clear political vision that supports a peaceful transition to a democratic system of rule that reflects the demands of the Syrian people for freedom.

In Tehran, Morsi backs Syrian revolution

Al-Arabiya has more details on President Morsi's criticisms of Syria during his visit to Iran:

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi hailed “brave” Syrians and Palestinians for their struggle against oppression during his speech at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran on Thursday.

Contrary to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ignored the Syrian conflict in his opening speech, Mursi said that Egypt is “ready” to aid and help the Syrian revolution.

He said that the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has lost legitimacy and the international community must work to stop the bloodshed in the country.

Al-Arabiya adds that the Syrian delegation walked out during Morsi's speech.

Updated at 9.34am BST

9.27am BST

US group raising funds for Syrian rebels

The New York Times reports on the Syrian Support Group, an activist network operating from a single-room office in Washington which – among other things – is raising funds to arm the Syrian rebels.

The group became more organized last spring when it incorporated, started its website and, in May, hired a former NATO political officer, Brian Sayers, to act as its director of government relations here in Washington after finding him through an online employment agency.

That same month, it applied for a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to raise money for the rebels. It was granted 23 July after the Obama administration intensified its efforts to provide humanitarian and other nonlethal assistance inside Syria.

US law restricts arms sales generally, and sanctions prohibit them to Syria specifically. But while the group cannot ship weapons, it can send money that the rebels can use to buy them ... The group has not disclosed its fundraising efforts so far, although its license requires it to report each month to the State Department how much it raises and sends.

The NYT quotes board member Naser Danan as saying that so far the group has yet to receive an influx of donations large enough to do much more than set up the office in Washington.

9.11am BST

Syrian regime 'oppressive', Morsi tells Iran

President Morsi's historic visit to Iran is not going as smoothly as the authorities in the Islamic republic may have hoped.

The two countries are divided over Syria and AP reports from Tehran that the Egyptian president has criticised Syria's regime, calling it "oppressive".

Morsi arrived in Iran this mornign to attend a summit of the 120-member Nonaligned Movement. Egyptian officials have said they do not expect top-level bilateral meetings with their Iranian counterparts.

9.05am BST

The price of resisting totalitarianism

The battle between President Assad's regime and the Free Syrian Army is a life-or-death struggle, Martin Chulov writes in an article for the Guardian. But whatever its outcome, this is a civil war being fought on a faultline that threatens the entire Middle East, he says.

When power starts to shift in the Middle East, its people have long known what to expect. Challenges to authority have rarely been met with a promise of consensus or inclusion. Strong-arm suppression – the more forceful the better – has been the default reaction to dissent. The price has usually been brutal.

Syrians who wanted an end to regime dominance knew the rules when they started demanding changes in the region's most uncompromising police state in March last year. Now, 18 months and more than 23,000 bodies later, and with no end in sight to the chaos ravaging the country, their worst fears are being realised on a scale that continues both to horrify and numb.

And yet, the events of the past 18 months have shattered one of the abiding guidelines to life under totalitarian rule – that absolute power is uncontestable. If anything has so far been achieved through the bedlam now rumbling through Syria and indeed other parts of the Arab world, it is a new reality: the power of the street has exposed the fragility of authority.

8.53am BST

Summary

Welcome to Middle East Live. Here is an update on the latest developments relating to Syria:

•What is taking place in Syria is "neither a revolution, nor a spring. It is a conspiracy," President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview broadcast last night.

Speaking on Addounia TV, a channel mainly owned by his businessman cousin, Rami Makhlouf, Assad said "The state of Turkey bears direct responsibility for the blood being shed in Syria."

He said the regime was fighting "a regional and global war, so time is needed to win it" – adding, "We are moving forward. The situation is practically better but it has not been decided yet."

Other key points:

Defections are welcome: "Defections are a positive process. Generally, it is self-cleansing of the state and the nation. If there is a Syrian citizen who knows of someone who wishes to flee but is hesitant to do so he should encourage him. Whoever flees is either weak or bad. A patriotic or a good person does not flee. Sometimes we had information [on defections] and we would discuss it. Some would suggest we stop them. But we said no, stopping them isn't the right thing to do ... let's facilitate their exit."

The military is exercising restraint: "If the Syrian military wants to retake territory it can do so but will be forced to use disproportionate force. Such actions run the perennial risk of alienating civilians and creating new motivations for anti-government actions."

A buffer zone won't work: "I believe that talk about a buffer zone is not practical, even for those countries which are playing a hostile role [against Syria]."

The president will not run away: "I am here with you in Damascus in the presidential palace. They have not been able until now to instil fear in my heart or the heart of Syrians. Everyone [in Syria] is worried about the country and that's natural."

•Lakhdar Brahimi, the new UN-Arab League envoy on the Syria conflict, wants to visit Damascus within the next three weeks. His spokesman told AFP plans are not finalised but it is "very possible" he will visit before the next session of the UN general assembly which starts on 24 September.

•Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi arrived in Tehran this morning to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. It is the first visit by an Egyptian leader since the Islamic revolution in 1979 and Iranian state TV broadcast live pictures of Morsi's red-carpet welcome at the airport.

•Foreign ministers will be discussing Syria's humanitarian crisis at the UN security council later today, but diplomats say no further action on Syria is likely apart from possible announcements of aid by individual countries. "We wanted a resolution on humanitarian issues, but we faced a double refusal," a French diplomatic source told Reuters. "The United States and Britain believe we have reached the end of what can be achieved at the Security Council, and Moscow and Beijing said that such a resolution would have been biased."

•Jordanian prime minister Fayez Tarawneh says Syrian refugees responsible for violence in a camp near the border will be deported back to Syria. About 200 refugees went on a rampage late Tuesday at Zaatari Camp, a desert tent city that houses 21,000 refugees, to protest about conditions there. Police said 28 officers were injured, one of them with a fractured skull.